Profitable Partnerships
Wednesday 6 August 2008
Professor Laura Hartman, Gourlay Visiting Professor of Ethics in Business.
Professor Laura Hartman passionately believes that poverty, both local and global, can be alleviated. But, she contends, this will not be achieved through the traditional method of supplying foreign aid from developed countries and assistance from not-for-profit organisations – approaches which experience over the last century shows have been singularly unsuccessful.
Rather, the 2008 Gourlay Visiting Professor of Ethics in Business at Trinity College and the Melbourne Business School suggests that success is far more likely to come as a result of corporate initiatives that are aligned with the goals of multinational businesses, but established in partnership with local communities for the benefit of both.
Professor Hartman, who is Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs at DePaul University in Chicago, USA, and Professor of Business Ethics and Legal Studies in the Management Department of DePaul’s College of Commerce, was delivering a free public lecture entitled ‘Profitable Partnerships – how multinationals can alleviate poverty while driving profits’, at the Melbourne Business School this evening.
Professor Ian Harper
She quoted examples of a soap manufacturer who reduced disease in a third-world country by promoting improved hygiene practices, simultaneously increasing the sales of soap in the region. And a mining company which raised the standard of living for local workers and their families by providing training and jobs.
Laura Hartman emphasised that, importantly, these kinds of partnership initiatives are sustainable because they are in the best interests of the communites they are designed to serve as well as corporations that drive them.
Associate Professor Andrew McGowan
‘Development will only occur if we change our shared narratives about global free enterprise, and only if we recalibrate our mindsets regarding how poverty issues are most effectively addressed,’ Professor Hartman said.
The lecture – which was followed by a lively question time – was chaired by Professor Ian Harper, Executive Director of the Centre for Business and Public Policy at the Melbourne Business School. The Warden of Trinity College, Associate Professor Andrew McGowan, introduced Professor Hartman to the near capacity audience.
About the Gourlay Visiting Professorship
Hailed as a ‘world first’, the Gourlay Visiting Professorship of Ethics in Business annually brings to Melbourne an internationally distinguished lecturer in the field of business ethics.
The goal of the Professorship is to encourage ethical behaviour in business by engaging potentially influential individuals in challenging discussions that stimulate them to think deeply about their decision-making practices and corporate culture.
Since 2005, Trinity College, the University of Melbourne, has partnered with the Melbourne Business School (MBS) to achieve this aim. Such partnership allows the Visiting Professor to interact with postgraduate students, many of whom are executives in large corporations and well-placed to encourage ethical change within their workplace.
In the audience – L to R: Mr Jono Gourlay, Mrs Louise Gourlay, Mrs Emma Harrison (née Gourlay), Mr John Seybolt.
The Gourlay Visiting Professorship of Ethics in Business was established in 2004 when retired stockbroker and Trinity College alumnus, the late John Gourlay, AM, together with his wife Louise Gourlay, OAM, set up an endowed fund within the Trinity College Foundation specifically to promote the teaching of ethics in business.
Each year, a major public lecture aims to bring the Gourlay Visiting Professor’s message to a wider audience.
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